Border security

Protecting the borders is now a military mission

The Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Robert Neller, grabbed some headlines when he declared his service is facing "rapidly accelerating risks" from, among other things, operations along the Southwest border.

To be fair, General Neller’s concern was one of many he communicated to the Secretary of the Navy and they are all legitimate concerns, but why his discomfort with the Southwest border mission? Does the other land force, the Army, think the same?

General Neller’s concern about the Southwest border mission may be rooted in the expeditionary mission of the Marine Corps which has typically deployed overseas as part of the naval forces. “Marine Corps Operations”, which describes the roles of the Marine Corps expeditionary forces, doesn’t mention U.S. borders or defending the homeland, though it does explain that an attribute of successful foreign counterinsurgency operations is “Securing host nation borders.”